Air quality monitoring in the port area of the city of Livorno using unconventional high-time resolution instrumentation

Abstract

The AER NOSTRUM project (”Aria bene comune”) aims to preserve and improve air quality in port areas. As part of the AER NOSTRUM project ARPAT has created a monitoring and analysis network in the period 2021-2022 in the ports of Livorno and Portoferraio. In particular, ARPAT used unconventional instruments such as an optical microparticle counter (size classes 0,3-20 µm) and a nanoparticle counter (size classes 10-420 nm), in two port sites in the city of Livorno.
For the first time airborne atmospheric particulate monitoring was carried out for extended periods in the four seasons of the year within the port area. In the monitoring campaigns performed with these instruments, the concentration of the fine and ultrafine fractions was measured: this parameter was combined with the measurement of the concentration of gases and data on naval traffic in the port area, in order to have indications both on the impact of port activities and on the correct functioning of these tools, which do not refer to official monitoring methods. Through the analysis of a few days taken as examples, it was verified that very often the transit or stop of ships, when it produces a direct effect on the monitoring data, is recognizable through data acquired as minute averages by non-conventional instruments.It can also be stated that the instrumentation used proved to agree in the data per minute even with the instrumentation that applies the standard method for measuring the concentration per minute of gases, verifying the measurement quality of these instruments.